Thunderous Steps
Saturday, June 21st, 2008Carbofuran, also known as 2,3-dihyrdro-2,2-dimethyl-7-benzofuranyl methylcarbamate, is a highly toxic pesticide that is used on field crops–especially soy beans.
Carbofuran is made to kill insects, mites, and nematodes, but unfortunately, it also kills just about every other animal on the planet.
In Kenya, people have been using carbofuran to kill off the predators that prey on their livestock. They lace carcasses with carbofuran, and the predators feed on the carcass and soon die. I learned about this from a BBC article that includes some rather disturbing footage of about fifty dead vultures surrounding a poisoned carcass. The article is here if you wish to take a look.
Carbofuran acts very quickly, and only small doses are needed. It takes only one grain to kill a small bird. All forms of carbofuran are banned in Europe, and the United States has banned the granular form in order to protect birds, who often mistake poison grains for seeds. According to the BBC, carbofuran is readily available in Kenya, and I would be willing to bet that this is also the case in many other developing nations.
It’s also probably safe to say that most ordinary people in Kenya and other developing countries do not know as much as they should about the dire ecological damage chemicals like carbofuran can wreak on the ecosystem. The bottles of carbofuran obtained by the BBC in Kenya had no warnings about the danger the chemical posed to wildlife or to humans.
Carbofuran presents a formidable threat to the environment even when it is used only on crops as it is supposed to be. Pesticide concentration grows higher each step up the food chain. If a herbivore nibbles on carbofuran treated crops and doesn’t die, it might be eaten by a predator, which might be eaten by another predator. Eventually humans are going to be negatively affected by high concentrations of pesticides in their prey. Carbofuran is also highly soluble in water, and it’s use carries a high risk of groundwater contamination.
In nature, there certain species called “keystone species.” Keystone species are species that, despite their low biomass, exert strong effects on the structure of the communities they inhabit. In other words, a keystone species is a group of creatures that may not be particularly glamorous, and may be small in number, but has a tremendous role in the ecosystem. The role that keystone species play in the ecosystem might not be noticed until the species is gone and the whole ecosystem falls apart. A pesticide as toxic as carbofuran kills indiscriminately, and with so many animals dying, it’s only a matter of time before a keystone species is affected. Once a keystone species is gone, it’s usually gone forever.
So, what should we do about things like toxic pesticide use? Do developed nations have any right to tell developing nations what they can and can’t do with their land? Should national sovereignty and personal property rights be respected at the cost of irreversible damage to the earth? I also wonder about the companies that make chemicals like carbofuran. Should they be allowed to produce and sell something that is so dangerous? And, if they should be, what ethical reasoning justifies this decision?
It’s much easier to ask these questions than to answer them.
At any rate, it is best to remember that….
Solitude is a human presumption. Every quiet step is thunder to beetle life underfoot, a tug of impalpable thread on the web pulling mate to mate and predator to prey, a beginning or an end. Every choice is a world made new for the chosen.
–from Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
